Examine the role of digitalisation and technology adoption in enhancing competitiveness of India's core industrial sectors, with reference to steel.

Steel — one of the eight core industries — anchors construction, railways and capital goods. India is the world's second largest crude steel producer, with output rising 10.7% to about 168 MT in 2025-26 [2]. Yet reaching the National Steel Policy 2017 goal of 300 MT capacity by 2030-31 [1] depends less on adding furnaces than on making existing capacity smarter.

How digitalisation builds competitiveness

• Operational efficiency: The Ministry of Steel's Chintan Shivir on Digitalisation in the Steel Sector (24 June 2026) pushed AI, automation and predictive maintenance to cut unplanned downtime and energy intensity per tonne [3].
• Upstream reliability: Digital mining stabilises raw material flows; NMDC's iron ore output rose 44% year-on-year in June 2026, easing a chronic bottleneck [3].
• Trade competitiveness: Quality and cost gains show in trade data — finished steel exports grew 35.9% while imports fell 31.7% in 2025-26, signalling a shift from import dependence toward Atmanirbhar Bharat in a strategic input [2].
• Capacity utilisation: Capacity crossed ~222 MTPA by June 2026, up from 137.97 MT in 2017-18 [1][3]; smart manufacturing converts installed capacity into actual production, narrowing the capacity–output gap.
• Governance: Monthly PIB performance bulletins create a real-time data trail enabling evidence-based policy correction [2].

Constraints to be examined

• Capital intensity and long payback deter MSME secondary producers, who form a large share of units.
• Shortage of digitally skilled shopfloor manpower; legacy plants need costly retrofitting.
• Cybersecurity risks in networked industrial control systems.
• Gains remain concentrated in large integrated plants, risking a dual-track industry.

Digitalisation is therefore an enabler, not a substitute, for raw material security and demand growth — but it is the decisive margin on which global competitiveness now turns. A calibrated push combining incentives for MSME technology upgradation, industry–ITI skilling partnerships and open industrial data standards would let technology adoption carry the sector toward NSP 2017's 255 MT production and 158 kg per capita consumption targets [1], strengthening self-reliance in a core industry.